spider hackle lengths

[letumgo]

Flawless dressing! Wow... I love the longer profile too. Beautiful.

Happy Cinco de Mayo Kelly! (I noticed the date stamp on your photo)

[DUBBN]

Great pattern Kelly.. Love your technique

[Kelly L.]

Thank you Ray. I liked this one too. I made quite a few spiders today. I'd do more, but my eyes are tired from tying them...lol. Cinco de Mayo is more of a Mexican thing. But since there are a lot of Mexicans here now, it is widely celebrated. My daughter is celebrating it with friends, an outdoor cook out. I am just tying flies today. I have been dying to get some of these spiders tied. I had to use super duper bifocals plus the head band bifocal contraption to see these with...lol. Pitiful, I know.

Dubbn, thank you very much too. I was getting a kick out of tying these flies today. I haven't tied this much in one day, for months. It was FUN.

[Mataura mayfly]

Kelly, fine looking long spider in your last photo.

If you feel any of your ties end up with hackles you feel are too long, in many classic publications (mainly British) it was often written that it was perfectly acceptable practise to pinch the hackle to the desired length.
The easiest way I have found to do this is to sweep the barbules back to the bend of the hook and pinch in place with one hand and pinch/tear the excess off between your fore finger and thumb nail. Pinch tearing seems to give a more natural look than cutting with scissors. It is also a good way of using larger feathers on smaller hooks, feathers that may otherwise be overlooked as being too big.

[Kelly L.]

Good suggestion. I use that pinch method on marabou, especially woolly buggers.